The Australian contemporary artist Lindy Lee has used A$10m ($6.7m) worth of pure gold to make a sculpture that weighs 50kg but is no bigger than a hunting horn.
Lee’s sculpture commission inaugurated a new arts programme developed by the Australian precious metal services conglomerate Pallion Group, which makes the Melbourne Cup and Australian Open trophies.
Pallion supplied Lee with the gold for her sculpture. Titled Abundance, it is a cylindrical half circle featuring thousands of tiny perforations, which interact playfully with the ambient light. The company retains ownership of Abundance but will put the sculpture on permanent loan at the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) in Canberra.
The public will first see Abundance when it forms part of the exhibition Lindy Lee (25 October-June 2025). At the same time, the NGA will unveil Lee’s massive new sculpture, Ouroboros (2022-24), which will go on permanent display outside the gallery. The NGA commissioned Ouroboros for A$14m ($9.4m) and promptly attracted criticism for spending such a large amount on just one work.
Lindy Lee’s Ouroboros in transit from UAP Foundry in Brisbane to the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra © Lindy Lee
Spiralling like the mythical creature it mimics, Ouroboros will feature a highly polished surface to reflect the outside world. At night it will be lit internally. Measuring 4m high and weighing around 13 tonnes, it is large enough for people to walk through and enjoy from the inside out.
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Lee’s Abundance sculpture is the first project realised under the new Pallion Arts Program. A statement from the company said it created the programme to give more emerging and established Australian artists the opportunity to work in Australian gold and silver. Troy Emery and Gaypalani Wanambi will be among the next artists to participate in the initiative.
Lee tells The Art Newspaper it was the first time she had worked with solid gold. She had created Abundance with artisans at Pallion’s subsidiary, W.J. Sanders, in the Sydney suburb of Marrickville. “[W.J. Sanders] is this gorgeous little old-fashioned workshop—it felt Victorian,” Lee says.
For the artist, gold symbolises a key event in her family history. Lee’s father moved to Australia to work in 1947. Back home in China under Communist rule, his wife and family were being stigmatised for having owned land. Lee’s mother decided to escape to Australia with her two children and join her husband. (The artist was born after the family was reunited.)
“My mum had this store of gold and when her mother-in-law was imprisoned, tortured and beaten, she managed to bribe the guards to release my grandmother,” Lee says. “This story was thrilling for a young Australian Chinese girl in Brisbane, because it was about justice, it was about doing good, it was about standing up and resolving a seemingly impossible situation. Gold to me represents independence and the ultimate luxury that is freedom”.